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Most never worked so hard to sail
better.....
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| We had a great practice on Sunday. Over 20 gybe sets and
the last 6 went as well as we would want. Sure they can be better. But I am happy with where we are. There is one thing happening that would help to straighten out. The purple line keeps getting buried under the Genoa on the drop. There is a reason, but I was not observing the cause. Because we kept the spinnaker flying well, it was only an inconvenience - but a minor panic for Steve, to correct the situation. It is better if it doesn't happen. Observation - when we do a gybe set we are also doing a successful bearaway set. Everything needs to work efficiently. We are getting there. When the opportunity presents itself, we will do a lot more roll gybes and roll tacks. Part of the arsenal we don't have up to speed. We need to practice the attack defense scenario some more because it requires the pole to be moved around very actively, both up and down and fore and aft. Really active - the scenario might go like this: we are being attacked, start thinking about pole tip down some but not until we are near to a beam reach do we put the pole tip down 18 inches. If we are getting chased higher, then we want the pole tip up a foot or more above level and the clew trimmed hard. Hike hard for speed while the spinnaker tries to pull us over. Hiking hard is essential - it is where we get the speed to pull away from the other boat while sailing at the same angle. The crew always needs to be super actively engaged to do the right things once we have an attack situation. It is where we pull away, away, away ... Now the attack can change quickly and we need to be able to respond just as quickly as we return to normal sailing angles. As the other boat turns down, we need to anticipate and turn right with him. The pole needs to come back to it's normal orientation just as quickly as the bow moves to the correct direction. The other boat might try to come right back at us and so we must be ready to go again. We need to make him pay on each attempt.This requires a lot of attention by the crew to keep up. I will not be able to issue the instructions. You simply need to keep track of where the boat is going and move the sails and pole accordingly. The bottom line is that if we can do this better than the other boat, we will start getting separation, and they will become discouraged at how much they are losing. At the same time we should be minimizing our loss to the fleet. Attacks are bad for everyone involved, unless you have distance to give up to the fleet. Attacks usually come early (before you can get up to speed) or late in the run (so that you don't have time to come back at them).
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